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Tag: church (Page 20 of 22)

We Are Not One

January 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s the truth isn’t it. We’ve become so divided that it’s hard to even see other people who think differently in a positive light. We pick one another apart and choose to focus on the things that separate us rather than the ones that unite us.

So what do we do about it? How do we come together when we’re so far apart?

This week in our message we focus on the reality of division in the world but also in the church. The message may be hard to hear. It wasn’t easy to preach. The intent of the message below isn’t to condemn anyone. Rather the intent is that of self reflection on the part I play in the troubles around me.

Perhaps you have the same thoughts? Perhaps you can some of the same struggles in how you see the world and how you react to those around you?

Give the message a listen and then honestly look at what is God calling you to do differently as a means to unify His church?

Is This Significant?

November 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments
Pisces: misunderstood genius! | Neon signs, Neon words, Neon quotes

What a year 2020 has become! I don’t know if anyone could have predicted the dumpster fire that this year has turned out to be. It sure doesn’t seem like anything is as it should be right now. But is any of this significant?

Over the past few days I’ve been looking back on what all has occurred throughout this monumental and earth shifting year. One thing that seems to keep coming back over and over again in my mind is one of the restrictions that many of our cities and states have implemented. Heck even the CDC has said this.

If you remember back to April and May of this year perhaps you’ll recall that we were all told to limit our gatherings to no more than 10 people. I think the reasoning was to limit the potential for spread of Covid and to make it easier to track back who all you’ve been with recently. At least that’s what I have understood from it all, and I didn’t think twice about it.

But recently I’ve heard a few different references to the number 10 and how it applies to the church and it’s got me thinking…is this significant? Is there a misunderstood genius behind all of this?

Now I’m not going to go all numerology on you or anything like that but let’s look at the history of the number 10 and why it might be significant here. In the Bible and in ancient Jewish tradition, the people were to come together to establish a synagogue or gathering of worshippers in a localized place. Well, enter what might be the significant part…

You had to have a minimum of, yep you guessed it, 10 people to constitute a synagogue. So what in the world might this mean?

Some might say that this is some demonic force trying to prevent God’s people from gathering in a mass numbers. While this could be? I’m not really sure that I buy that one. I don’t buy it because we’re still able to meet, albeit virtually but we’re still able to gather in many informal settings and the word is still able to be preached. Could the Devil be up to something? Of course he is! When isn’t he? But I think there might be another, and potentially more transforming thing happening here.

The ten mandate is still the case for some people. Much of the country has excluded places of worship from this mandate, but it does still apply in various locations to this day. But the number limitation holds for gatherings of people for many other purposes too. Enter the conspiracy theory portion of this post – don’t worry this is a positive conspiracy theory if that’s such a thing?

What if God was in control all along? Yeah I know he is but stick with me here. What if God was taking this whole pandemic craziness thing and using it as a way to allow some of our churches to stay within the guidelines while still doing, being and even growing the church?

Think about it – you can’t come to the church either because it’s not allowed based on this rule or because you’re just not comfortable in groups that large. But are you able and willing to be in a smaller group with a more controlled atmosphere? Could you gather and form your own grouping of say 10 people?

Ten doesn’t seem like that many, but God even said that for the sake of 10 faithful he would have delivered all of Sodom and Gomorrah. Whoa there’s that number again!

Could God be up to something? Are you unable to get back in your in-person worship space due to restrictions or comfort level? Are you willing to be one of 10? I think this is massively significant and something we need to be taking full advantage of in this weird and wild ride we call 2020. Want to be a group of 10…hit me up and we’ll see how we can resource you.

Who would have thought that something as simple as the number 10 could actually help?

Ok friends those are today’s random ramblings.

What The World Needs Now

November 10, 2020 / / 0 Comments

This world is a hot mess! I don’t really know how else to say it. People are fighting. Accusations are flying all over the place. Everyone things that their way the is the best way. We want things to get better and honestly many think that better is tied to a policy or person. But that’s not what’s going to make things better.

This week we baled on a message series to address the matters in our world. But not quite how you might think. While the issues in our nation are very much politically driven and we’re trying to find the right person to offer the right policy to fix what we feel is wrong, we have a short sighted view of the real problem.

The more time and effort we spend on short term, quick fixes the more short duration fixes we’ll discover – if we discover a fix at all. Specific people and policies are not what this world needs.

This world needs those who call themselves believers in Jesus to actually live like believers in Jesus. The world needs the church to be the church and or Christians to start living what they are claiming to be true. The world doesn’t need more love or acceptance or tolerance. The world needs forgiveness, healing and some hard truths spoken.

Some won’t like the message. Some will. The point is not to please everyone. The point is what’s needed isn’t always the thing that’s wanted. Sometimes the most needed thing is the least desired thing.

Church With No Walls

October 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

What would it look like if the church lost its walls? What would it look like if there was no boundary holding the church back? What woudl happen if one day God just knocked down our walls of fear and separation and released us into the world? Well…welcome to 2020!

The current reality of the church is that we have become a church with no walls! God took our love for building and comfort for meeting spaces and brought that to an abrupt end. I don’t need to remind anyone about all of the disruption to normal life this year has brought. But what if God is up to something?

When we were no longer able to go through our regular Sunday morning routines, we felt a little discombobulated. When being face to face with our church friends was no longer possible, we were thrown off and didn’t know what to do. When we no longer were allowed to be in our buildings or see our friends’ faces, we lost a little hope. But what if God was making us into a church with no walls?

The start of the church in Acts looked a lot like what we’re seeing right now. Well minus masks and distance and technology. But I hope you get the point. The church didn’t have buildings or meeting spaces. They didn’t have set times of day to meet. They were fluid. They were flexible. They were everywhere, because they had a realization that we’ve forgotten.

God built his church to be a church with no walls. How are you going to live as part of a church with no walls? What will that look like for your time of worship? How will your fellowship look different?

Don’t Skip This Step

October 21, 2020 / / 0 Comments
person climbing concrete stairs
Photo by Clique Images on Unsplash

I’m going to admit that this post is very much directed at churches, pastors, and other leaders in church-topia. But if you’re not in one of those roles, I’d love for you to still read and hold those of us who are in these roles accountable. Because what we’re doing isn’t enough. I recently heard someone say we’re perfectly positioned to get what we’re currently getting. Or put another way we’ll keep getting what we’ve always gotten if we keep doing what we’ve always done.

So what needs to change?

As church people and church leaders we have big dreams for an Acts 2:47 kind of moment. That’s the moment when God added to their number daily those who were being saved. I mean who wouldn’t want that for the church they serve or even the church they attend!

I’ve been a pastor for over 18 years now and in every church I’ve ever served, we always wanted to reach more people so the kingdom of God would grow. We celebrated baptisms and new member classes. We would hold big welcome events when we brought in a new group of people to the church.

But when we weren’t seeing an increase in numbers we started to wonder what was wrong. What are we missing? Why isn’t God bringing them to us anymore? Why did attendance shrink? Why aren’t new people coming anymore?

This problem is only getting more vivid as we move through this post Covid reality. Churches are shrinking. Less than 75% of church members on average are returning to in person worship. Those who are staying home are saying it’s getting harder and harder to stay connected digitally because the digital time feels like the in person time just without the person connection.

And so many of our churches are pushing to go back to normal. It’s so easy to want to go back to regular in person worship. We want our coffee hour and our fellowship meals. We want to gather the way we used to between services and catch up on what’s going on in life. We want our Sundays back for crying out loud.

But we can’t have our Acts 2:47 moments without living in verse 46 first! Verse 46 is easily overlooked. We love verse 42 where we read how they devoted themselves to breaking of bread, fellowship, prayers and teaching. We expect God will add to our numbers daily in mass quantities. But what did they do with the fellowship, bread, prayers and teaching? Did they do it on Sundays? Did they keep it tucked away for an hour long expression of service and devotion one day a week? Here’s what Acts 2:47 says:

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.

Do you see it? Day by day! They saw something that we have forgotten. Church is not an hour on Sunday. It’s not a building we go to on the weekend. It’s who we are. It’s the people with whom we surround ourselves.

Do you day by day with Jesus and those in your community of faith? Do you day by day in the promise of the temple? Do you day by day around the breaking of bread?

It’s really not as hard as we’ve made it out to be. There are so many ways to day by day! You don’t have to spend hours a day. You don’t have to be a bible scholar. You don’t have to host a small group or be at church 24/7! Two of my favorite ways to day by day are the S.O.A.P plan and the 5x5x5 plan. I’ll explain the 5x5x5 plan more in a future post but the gist is five minutes a day in the bible, do one of five simple tasks with the verses (highlight, memorize, etc), and do it five days a week.

These are just a couple ways that we can day by day with God and one another. I’ll unpack a few more options in the weeks to come. But for now start where you are and lean into God a little more today and soon you’ll be in a day by day situation too.

Start Right Here

October 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Today’s MusicMonday was released in the middle of our pandemic reality. And to be honest it’s probably a message that is a few years too late but oh so true for our present reality.

The point of the song is that we have to start the change needed in the world and it has to start somewhere. And that somewhere is right here and right now.

The message of the Bible isn’t one of blame or pushing responsibility off to someone else. The Bible is about claiming our struggles and admitting our part of the problem. I’ve had a long-time philosophy in my life that I won’t bring a problem if I’m not also willing to bring a solution and be part of that solution.

The divided world in which we live today makes it too easy to blame someone else. Put others down for not seeing life the way we see it. Even “unfriend” someone because they won’t bow to our way of living. Sure there are some issues that are pretty critical to who we are as followers of God, but most of the things we take a stand on really aren’t that important or critical.

Take time to realize that the change you’re looking for in the world won’t start with the person across from you at work, beside you at church or even the one who lives with you at home. That change has to start right here and right now with you.

Flip the Curve

October 2, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Imagine for a moment one scenario with two potential outcomes. The scenario is simple you face a challenge. You get caught off guard. You’re thrown off track. Something comes out of no where and completely derails all of your plans. All of your momentum is halted. You come to what feels like a dead stop in an instant.

Sound familiar? I think we’ve all kind of lived this very scenario in our own ways. Graduations were canceled. Spring athletes never had their chance to perform their talents for family, friends and scouts. Summer activities were canceled. Businesses were closed. Churches stopped meeting in person. Family gatherings were stifled. Nearly everything we knew ground to a painful, screeching halt.

And if we’re being honest things aren’t really all that much better. The very thing that brought this calamity upon us is still with us. Fear is being handed out like it was candy to a group of children on halloween. The situation seems so bleak. Business are closing their doors. Churches are being split over how they handle the regulations. Families and friends are divided over where they stand on the issues facing our country.

When our situation is this dire there are two natural outcomes: crash and burn or pivot and soar. The rest of this post will address the issue as it pertains to churches but is really applicable to all scenarios.

In a recent article in Outreach Magazine, it’s been estimated that nearly 1 in 5 churches will likely close their doors within 18 months of the pandemic. This is awful to even think about. But how can we prevent this from being our reality in whatever field we find ourselves in?

If we keep doing the same things we’ve always done, we’ll get the same results we’ve grown to accept or even worse.

So to change the tide we need to pivot. The idea of pivoting in basketball is to keep one foot in place while moving the rest of your body in different directions to determine which way will benefit the team most.

Right now we’re in a situation that demands a pivot. The curve is trending downward. We’ve grown accustomed to being an organization that is all about Sunday morning. Gather together is the goal. Meeting is the mission. But what happens if we pivot our thinking?

The mission of the church never was to just gather and meet. Jesus said to make disciples. The mission of the church if we’re following the command of Jesus should be to go, baptize, teach. It’s all about growing the family of God.

If we don’t pivot our thinking we’re going to ride the plane right into the ground. But if we can keep one foot firmly rooted in the promises of God in scripture, then pivot our methods to see where He might be leading us we’ll be able to soar in ways we never thought imaginable.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll look at a few things we can do to pivot our thinking and approach our current situation not as a series of challenges but as opportunities that God has placed before us to help us soar.

As we end this post consider where you’ve been and what direction you’re headed now. Then evaluate why your church or organization really exists. That information will be helpful as we move forward next week.

It’s Really Not That Hard

August 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

As a pastor I have to frequently evaluate what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we’re doing it. The idea is to make sure we’re on track and that we’re being as effective as we possibly can be. But one thing I’ve realized over and over again is that we make life too hard. We have made the gospel far too difficult and have complicated the faith scenario immensely.

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